Now that he had a naughty Mime Jr on his hands, he had to find someone—anyone—who had the patience to handle such a…fine specimen. Of course, what he didn’t realize was that—
Fishing out his wallet with his other hand, he then whistled and called Mike over. He could fucking swear this Pelipper was way smarter than he looked.
“Go find some food for our guest, will you?” he said as he dropped some bills into the huge-ass bowl beak of the Pelipper before pointing.
“Hurry back as soon as you can, okay?!” he continued, and with a warking noise Mike was off.
This left him with the Chandelure, who was staring at him like he had gone mad.
“What? What is it?” he asked—before one of the Chandelure’s spindly limbs gestured at his now-empty hands.
“AH! Where the hell did it run off to?!” he shrieked, and for a few moments he looked around the area in a panic. How was he supposed to get the shelter and support part of this challenge done
when the main attraction itself had made an escape attempt?!
The Chandelure then spotted something, before quickly firing off a
Shadow Ball in a certain direction. The moment Alexei heard the sound of ‘shattering glass’, he looked in that direction and saw the—there it was!
“Get back here!” he yelped as he chased the Mime Jr down and exaggerated his gestures; because he was sure he was going to crash into an invisible Barrier or something. Eventually he’d managed to get his hands back on the naughty little one, before the Chandelure glared at it with its soulless eyes.
“Don’t run away like that! I asked Mike to get food for you!” he scolded, as they continued their walk around the city proper.
Damn it.
As the Chandelure continued to hover slightly above and ahead of them, keeping one of her two eyes on the tricky Mime Jr, another shadow announced its presence—the Pelipper had returned.
Its beak had a drool-soaked plastic bag containing an assortment of food once Alexei had retrieved it one-handed (Pelipper drool is gross, okay) before settling down somewhere and cracking one of the cans open.
It was a can of peach-flavored treats, however when it was offered to the Mime Jr…
Alexei had never seen something so small projectile-spit so far. The food hadn’t even spent five seconds in its mouth!
“What?!” he exclaimed as he buried his face in his hands.
“Are you kidding me?” he groaned a few moments later, before reaching for another can of baby food—this time, banana-flavored.
Surely bananas would go over well with—
“Not again!” he screeched, as the Mime Jr had made another run for it. “Go get ‘em back!” he said, and the Chandelure took off again, aiming another
Shadow Ball in the direction where it had started to ‘mime’ barriers into existence.
Several failed attempts later, another loud, shattering noise indicated where the Mime Jr had gone, and Alexei ran off to grab the danged thing. The Pelipper stayed behind where the food had been haphazardly assembled while the flustered man eventually returned with a naughty, naughty Mime Jr in his hands again—followed once more by the Chandelure.
“You know, at this rate nobody’s going to want you! Stop escaping!” he groaned again as he sat down on the sidewalk corner, reaching for the can of banana-flavored treats and attempting to wheedle the Mime Jr to eat a piece.
And just like earlier—
Another projectile-spit, ladies and gentlemen.
“Oh, come on! That’s ridiculous!” he grumbled as he bit back another tirade of swears. The Pelipper then took off before eventually alighting atop a street light, waiting for him to move. The Chandelure was nearby just in case the Mime Jr took off again.
“You can’t be serious? You don’t like peach, you don’t like banana—what do you want?!” he wailed as he hid his face in his hands once more.
The Pelipper let out a loud squawk, another warning that the Mime Jr was going to make a break for it—however a warning glare from the Chandelure, along with a half-materialized
Shadow Ball, made the danged baby stay put.
Grabbing a can at random, Alexei then opened it and jammed a wooden spoon inside it, before holding it out in surrender.
“I swear if you don’t like this flavor…” he groaned as he peeked at the Mime Jr sniffing it first.
Slowly, slowly… very cautiously…
The food disappeared, bit by bit.
“So you don’t like peach and banana… what flavor is—” he trailed off as he looked at the jar, scooping up another spoonful and letting the Mime Jr eat it.
…butternut squash?!“What the fuck,” was all he could exclaim a few moments later. Hoo boy, this was going to be
a time.
While he kept the Mime Jr busy, he pondered on how best to find someone who would take in the Mime Jr and let them grow. He knew his time was running short, however he had to make it quick otherwise—
It didn’t take too long for someone to approach him, however he couldn’t help but notice that there was something—a little off about this person. Not in a bad way, though.
A few seconds later he realized that he was communicating with a deaf person.
The way they were gesturing at the Mime Jr that was currently eating its way through the jar, before they reached into their pocket and revealed their companion—a full-grown version of the Mime Jr he had with him.
“Oh,” he said quietly, before looking through his pockets and finding a pen and paper.
‘Are you interested?’ he scribbled down, before showing it to them—and getting a nod of approval, before gesturing at the Mr. Mime that was with them.
A flurry of hand signs later, before Alexei blinked again and wrote once more under the first message,
‘Are you sure? This one keeps running away… ran away too many times, and only my Chandelure giving it a glare keeps it in place,’ before he showed the message once more.
The person continued to gesture at the Mr. Mime, before Alexei looked over to see what was going on between the two.
The Mime Jr had stopped eating in wonder, before looking up at the bigger version of itself with stars in its eyes. Then the ‘showdown’ began, with the two miming Barriers into existence around each other, and eventually performing like exaggerated clowns after all those ‘walls’ appeared.
He could tell the other was laughing at the Pokémon’s shenanigans, the way they were shaking in barely-suppressed mirth. He chuckled sheepishly before adding more to the paper.
‘Well, since you have a Mr. Mime of your own. And it seems to like your Pokémon…’He then quickly tore off a piece of paper before scribbling something down on it.
‘Keep an eye on the baby. Loves running off. Maybe scare it a little. It doesn’t like peach or banana, but would go for… butternut squash. Weird.’He then handed the paper to them, before allowing the Mr. Mime to wander off with the Mime Jr in tow. After the person gave them an embarrassed bow of gratitude and another flurry of hand gestures, he knew he had to speak slowly. His guess was that they could read lips.
“It was nothing,” he said before taking a bow as well. Now that he’d managed to find everything for the Mime Jr, it was time to head back.
Mime Jr is a picky eater + constantly tried to escape!
Also, he knows a little sign language because one of the Sanctuary's staffers is hard of hearing in case anyone was curious.
Zac closed the doors to the van, sealing the unwanted babies inside. "Don't worry," he said, looking meaningfully around at the contestants. "I'm sure they can wait until the next Urban Biome Contest."
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